Any Gardeners out there?

[Moodene]

Just want to touch base with other gardeners...Tell us about yourself and what kind of garden or gardens do you have?

I'll start off first..
I have several tropical gardens along with my son who does palms and cycads. I have gingers,bananas,angel trumpets,tropical vines,crinums,Elephant ears of all kinds and colors,variegated foliage plants, Amarylisses,lilies, ETC..lol. I am located between Houston and Beaumont, Texas way down in the southeast corner of Texas. I don't get too many frosts or freezes here since I am Zone 9b borderline 10a.
Hurricane Ike put a BIG dent in my yard this year but we are slowly rebounding from all the clean up and I will post pics soon as it looks decent here to take pics..I also have a veggie garden but not this winter since my veggie garden still has tree limb debris all over it..and on it..so have to wait and have a garden started in spring time...If anybody would like to do a trade with me next year..just give me a buzz...OK..next...LOL...

 

[freemotion]

It is winter here in MA and I am a fairly new gardener but I am very proud of my gardens!

We bought our first house 7 years ago, in an area that is very pricey (midway between Boston, NYC, and Hartford) so to get a little land so we can have animals, we got a major fixer-upper. The yard was a tangle of raspberry canes (not the good ones, the little wild ones) and my nemesis, multiflora. HUGE multiflora. In the yard. The center was a square of bare dirt where the leaching field was put in by the previous owners.

I dug and hauled and burned for the first six years. This is the first year I don't have a burn pile waiting for burn permit season.

Now I have perennial gardens all over our beautiful yard. My favorite is a shade garden on one side, in which I plant flats and flats of impatiens in the spring, in between the permanent plants.

I still have the front to do, but I am waiting until we have the windows replaced so nothing gets stomped on. I put veggies in there this year, couldn't stand the empty space! And all the other gardens are done, I just needed to plant something.

All was done on a budget. I go to the plant center for their end-of-season sale and see what is left. I divide what I have. I found and identified plants in neglected patches here and there on the property and moved them. My favorites all came from admiring other people's gardens, asking about certain plants I liked, then saying, "If you ever need to divide that, please think of me. It is just gorgeous!" I usually get a little pot before the year is out. Those are my favorite plants.

I now am in a position to divide many of my plants, and whenever someone is buying their first home, I offer to give them plants when they start landscaping. I love to play in the dirt!

 

[Wifezilla]

I live South of Colorado Springs, CO

The tough thing about growing stuff in Colorado is that even with our warm Summers and relatively short winters, night time temps are low, we have "hail season" in early Spring, and it often snows like crazy in late October. You also get periods of intense heat and no water during the Summer. So I have to find drought-resistant, cold tolerant, short season crops

Where I live, the soil is actually descent. Further North, people usually have a lawn on top of freaking SAND! Miss watering one days and you have desert.

Thinks that grow REALLY well here...
Grapes (I have 2 vines)
Pumpkins/spaghetti squash/acorn squash
Herbs (basil, oregano, chives, mint, thyme, sage)
Kale

Things I used to grow in Wisconsin and can't seem to grow well here...
Tomatoes
Peas
Radishes
Kohlrabi

Here are some shots of my plants from last year...

One of my apple trees. It was a "Charlie Brown" tree from Walmart I got for $4. Last year it started setting apples

The grape arbor. I have chairs under there. Great place to hide and get some reading done.


Under the arbor


Decorative plants and a couple of tomato plants. They do OK, but nothing like I am used to


The herbs...lots of greek oregano, thyme, rosemary, sage, and mint

 

[freemotion]

Ooooo-oooo-oooo! I love your grape arbor, in want one! I have been looking at pictures and planning for after the windows are done....someday....

How long does it take for the grapes to cover the arbor....and TWO plants!?!? How many square feet is your arbor with two lush grape plants? Do you get a lot of grapes?

Grape envy!

 

[Wifezilla]

Well, the big vine (Audrey) is about 6 years old. She grew like crazy from the get-go. We didn't put in the arbor until a couple of years ago and she covered it completely last year.

Seymore (the little vine) is only a year younger than Audrey, but he is a different variety and grows much slower.

Some years we get a lot of grapes, some years only a little. Even in years with a lot of grapes, we often don't get many because of the @#^&^&@#@ evil squirrels.

As for square footage....hummm.... 8'x10' for Audrey? Seymore just drapes over a wire fence.

 

[Moodene]

Cool arbor!!